New football facility to start construction in 2016

The home of Troy University football will look different after this year.

The construction of a brand new facility at the north end zone of Veterans Memorial Stadium is planned to begin after the upcoming season.

The east and west sides of the football stadium that will be connected with a state-of-the-art facility, which will include new locker room space for players, coaches, and officials, as well as an equipment room, a game day training room, a rehab room, a nutrition area, a recruiting lounge, team meeting rooms, video rooms, a Hall of Fame area, and a “T-Club” area.

The structure will also allow for the potential addition of club level seating, fan entertainment areas, or lodge seating.

Dr. Jim Bookout the senior vice chancellor of finances and affairs at Troy University, is the chair of the New Endzone Project. He said he would share this responsibility with the new Athletic Director as they seek to make the idea of a major stadium improvement a reality.

“The current operations facility is outdated and does not contain sufficient space,” Bookout said in an email interview. “The new facility will also be used as the base for the end zone scoreboard that will be the largest in the Sun Belt Conference.”

The initial idea for the stadium improvements was not recent, however.

“The idea for an end zone facility originated about five videos ago with the understanding that private money would have to be raised in addition to the revenue being brought in from ticket and suite sales,” Bookout sales.

While the facility was originally designed to accommodate the needs of other Trojan sports, the project was revised in the past year to focus on becoming a more football-focused facility, with a budget of $17 million.

The new facility will allow visitors to use the recently renovated Tine Davis Fieldhouse as their locker room and more the Trojans’ locker room and move the Trojans’ locker room into the new facility.

Furthermore, the relocation of the student academic center to the Tine Davis Fieldhouse remains a possibility throughout the process of shuffling facility occupancy.

With the construction of a new facility for the north end zone, other Trojan sports can expect to receive their own updated facilities in the coming years.

Unless another sport comes forward with a more pressing need, Bookout said, the track and field team will receive a new track, and there will be a new indoor facility for the tennis program.